A Wild Swan / The Creative Cottage

Issue No. 89

A WILD SWAN PLUCKS AT FAMILIAR FAIRY TALES WITH A VOICE THAT’S SARDONIC, SALACIOUS, OR BRIMMING WITH EMPATHY

A Wild Swan and Other Tales
by Michael Cunningham (author) and Yuko Shimizu (illustrator)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
2015, 144 pages, 6.4 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches

Buy on Amazon

A few pages into A Wild Swan and Other Tales we’re stopped short by a narrator who is either supremely cynical or just brutally honest: “End of story. ‘Happily ever after’ fell on everyone like a guillotine’s blade.” But that abrupt point of stoppage, it turns out, is the vulnerable moment onto which Michael Cunningham can graft fresh possibilities. In this case, he builds on Hans Christian Andersen’s version of “The Wild Swans” by imagining a trajectory for the least fortunate swan-brother, the one whose incomplete coat of nettles transformed him back into a man but left him with a “linty, dispiriting” wing where his arm should be.

In this collection of eleven stories, the Pulitzer-winning author of The Hours plucks and tweaks at familiar fairy tales in a variety of ways – through POV changes, time shifts, reimagined elements, and most especially an irresistible voice that’s by turns sardonic, salacious, or brimming with empathy. “Little Man” gives us the motivations behind Rumpelstiltskin’s baby mania. “Jacked” believably paints the beanstalk climber as dumb and lucky. “The Monkey’s Paw” locates another haunting angle on W.W. Jacobs’ tale about the cruel side of wishes.

Based only on its literary merits, A Wild Swan would already be worth your time – but this book is special. Masterful pen-and-ink illustrations, drop caps, endpapers, and cover art by award-winning illustrator Yuko Shimizu elevate A Wild Swan to exquisite object. Where your stereotypical fairy tale collection might boast lush colors, ornate bindings, and metallic accents, A Wild Swan is elegant. Restrained, but not spare, its quality emerges in sedulous attention to detail. White space explodes into knots of intricate line on carefully composed pages. A swan’s silhouette stands out in relief on the embossed cover. Cunningham’s canny, contemporary voice is made more timeless with decorations that hearken back to, but don’t simply imitate, famed illustrators from Walter Crane to Harry Clarke.

I’ve loved Shimizu’s work since a friend pointed me to her public page on Facebook a year ago. (Come for the behind-the-scenes illustration techniques, stay for the adorable Chihuahua pics.) A Wild Swan and Other Tales gives the Japanese-born artist the chance to shine in tandem with a talented major author secure in his powers. – Lisa Barrow

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THE CREATIVE COTTAGE – SMALL SPACES REHABILITATED BY ADVENTUROUS HOMEOWNERS WITH VISION

The Creative Cottage
by Steve Gross and Susan Daley
Gibbs Smith
2016, 160 pages, 8.5 x 11 x 0.8 inches

Buy on Amazon

The Creative Cottage features 13 fabulous small abodes that house collections of many types. Each chapter highlights a cottage that has been rehabilitated by adventurous and artistic homeowners with vision. The cottages are art themselves, with thoughtful architecture, and they are filled with wonderful upcycled, found, and renovated components, both antique and modern blended together, feeling curated and purposeful as opposed to random and slap-dash. The creative souls behind them are artists, pickers, and normal folks too, who just needed someplace more special to live.

The text reads like a menu in a fancy restaurant, in which every ingredient has a special designation, treatment, and provenance. The painting from the lobby of an old theater in upstate New York. A salvaged stained-glass window. A zinc rain barrel holding antique canes. A soapstone sink from a high school lab. A red vinyl 1940s barbershop chair. Striped tea towels hung on a twig. A 1930s school locker sponge, painted to look like wood. A bed platform made from painted license plates and metal Alabama road signs. Sculptures fashioned from beaver-chewed wood.

Even if you’re not planning on renovating the shotgun shack on the back forty or the tiny abandoned building by the edge of the local harbor, the photographs are fun to look at. Finding each ingredient discussed within the accompanying photographs is like playing Where’s Waldo with 19th-century furniture and Barbershop ads from Nigeria. This might be a book for you if you enjoy seeing how others live, are interested in architecture and interior design, or need some inspiration to create something beautiful in whatever space surrounds you. – Aaron Downey

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Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

10/21/25

Dehydrators

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 186

Affordable dehydrator

Nesco Food Dehydrator

The Nesco Food Dehydrator is a simple, affordable, and well-built tool for drying foods quickly and thoroughly. Though not an every-day-use item for most people, it becomes absolutely essential when it is needed.

I recently went on a weekend trip hunting for morels and returned with far more than I could eat. Luckily, this dehydrator made short work of the excess. The stackable trays easily fit 60 whole small morels and many of the larger ones which I’d cut in half. Altogether, I fit about three pounds of mushrooms in fivetrays.

Like the previously reviewed Excalibur Food Dehydrator, the Nesco model has a temperature control, fan, and heating unit. The Nesco’s heating unit is built into the top (cheaper models heat bottom-up) that sits atop the stack of trays and blows air through a central column allowing for better distribution and airflow throughout.

I used a temperature of 110F when drying morels, and left them to dry over night for about 8 hours. Since any moisture can lead to a ruined batch, I made sure to let them dry out for a little longer than necessary. They were perfectly dried the next morning, and ready for storage in an airtight container.

While I have mainly used this model for mushrooms, the large trays and variable temperature dial (95-160F) allows for a wide range of dried foods to be made. This particular model is also expandable to 12 trays if you need to dry a truly astonishing amount of food.

The Nesco, when compared with the Excalibur, has the benefit of being nearly $125 dollars cheaper combined with a smaller (though expandable) footprint, a relatively-quiet fan, and similarly adjustable temperature. — JC

I have experience with both the Excalibur and the more recently-reviewed Nesco, a smaller and less expensive dehydrator. The Excalibur is a superior product if you are a heavy user and tend to be drying large batches of produce at once. It has quite a bit more capacity due to the design (no center hole and square racks make a big difference). The horizontal airflow system does dry large batches more uniformly. Although you can add racks to the Nesco, it dries less efficiently, and once you add in the cost of extra racks you are approaching the same price as the Excalibur.

Having said that, the price on the Nesco has really dropped and the top-down heater/blower is a nice upgrade over the older bottom-fan models. Heck, you could almost get three of them for the same price as an Excalibur, although that would take up a lot of storage space and use more energy to power 3 units. — Oliver Hulland

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DIY dried goods

Excalibur Food Dehydrator

I’ve been using this 9-tray dehydrator once or twice a week for the last three years to make dried fruit, veggies, jerky, dog treats, and dried bread crumbs. Other uses include re-crisping crackers, cookies, and chips, and thoroughly drying wet photographs and flowers.

Overall, this is truly the most flexible dehydrator I’ve found. The thermostat is adjustable (85-145F), so you can customize your dehydrating. The removable trays allow you to experiment with sizes, quantities and varieties of foods sorted by temperature range. If you group shorter-term items by tray, you just remove those trays first, then keep the remaining items/trays inside a bit longer.

Other units heat unevenly from the bottom, require you to manually rotate trays, and — in the case of cheaper units — don’t let you control the temperature. Along with a thermostat, the Excalibur has a fan that distributes heat more evenly; it also features a timer, so it will automatically turn off at a desired time whether you’re around or not.

All of the dehydrators I’ve used generate noise (I now use my Ronco and Home Essentials models exclusively for making dog treats). Since the Excalibur isn’t quiet, I keep it in our craft room. It’s very easy to clean. I enjoy not throwing out spoiled food. We always have healthy snack alternatives for us and our grandkids — and they enjoy contributing to the process as much as they eating the rewards. Ever since we moved to a property with grapevines, they’ve helped us make copious amounts of raisins.

Tips:

1) To make fruit yogurt leathers or work with items high in moisture content, you’ll need ParaFlexx non-stick drying sheets. Excalibur provides a pretty good guide on how to work with different foods.

2) If you buy direct from the manufacturer, it may be slightly more expensive, but I understand they’ll guarantee the unit for 10 years; otherwise, you can purchase a 10-year extended warranty. — Chris Lewis

I have experience with both the Excalibur and the more recently-reviewed Nesco, a smaller and less expensive dehydrator. The Excalibur is a superior product if you are a heavy user and tend to be drying large batches of produce at once. It has quite a bit more capacity due to the design (no center hole and square racks make a big difference). The horizontal airflow system does dry large batches more uniformly. Although you can add racks to the Nesco, it dries less efficiently, and once you add in the cost of extra racks you are approaching the same price as the Excalibur.

Having said that, the price on the Nesco has really dropped and the top-down heater/blower is a nice upgrade over the older bottom-fan models. Heck, you could almost get three of them for the same price as an Excalibur, although that would take up a lot of storage space and use more energy to power 3 units. — JC

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Affordable, freeze-dried goods

Dehydrated Food In Bulk

Backpackers, canoeists, campers and scouts have two basic ways to stock their food supply: classic prepackaged freeze-dried meals or building your own menu. Commercial freeze-dried camping food is expensive, limits menus choices and is hit or miss in the flavor department. Most of us have learned to shop carefully at the grocery store and put together a fairly lightweight, nutritious menu for weekend trips. But add a couple of people and extend the trip for two or three days and grocery store options get a bit heavy. Supplementing with bulk freeze dried or dehydrated food expands the choices and cuts down the packed weight while developing a tasty, nutritious menu without blowing the budget. If you are planning an extended trip, I highly recommend assembling your menu with these two suppliers in mind. — Clarke Green

Honeyville Food Products

I’ve organized six days of food for 18 people in two crews for a canoe trip (18 meals, 324 servings), which would have been impossible — or just plain expensive — had I not ordered Honeyville’s goods. They offer a wide variety of vegetables, fruits and other foodstuffs in bulk (#10 tin cans, and cases even). While a single-serving package of freeze-dried strawberries (.06 oz.) from Mountain House is $3.00 ($50.00 an ounce!), Honeyville’s #10 can of freeze-dried strawberries (6 oz.) costs just $17.00 ($2.83 an ounce). They will ship an order of any size anywhere in the continental U.S. for under five dollars — just a little more than a gallon of gas!

Harmony House Foods

Soups, vegetables, fruits and textured vegetable protein (i.e. soy-based meat substitute) in large AND smaller quantities so you customize freeze-dried meals for long, big, short and small trips. They also offer a Backpacking Kit, a pre-selected assortment of dried foods that will make a variety of dishes. Don’t miss these two very helpful PDF files: Using Dehydrated Products and a Serving Size Chart.

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Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

10/20/25

Retro Recomendo: Science

Recomendo - issue #484

Our subscriber base has grown so much since we first started nine years ago, that most of you have missed all our earliest recommendations. The best of these are still valid and useful, so we’re trying out something new — Retro Recomendo. Once every 6 weeks, we’ll send out a throwback issue of evergreen recommendations focused on one theme from the past 9 years.

Quick research explainers

Two Minute Papers is a YouTube channel featuring short videos (sometimes 5 minutes long) created by a professor who reviews new research papers in visual programming, artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer graphics, simulations, and other state-of-the-art computer science. He explains the research’s significance, while running very cool graphics demo-ing the results. I find it a painless way to keep up in this fast moving field. — KK

Understanding physics

Isaac Asimov’s 768-page Understanding Physics clearly explains the principles of motion, sound, heat, light, magnetism, and electricity in a historical context. It gave me a better understanding of physics than four years of mechanical engineering school, and was actually fun to read. — MF

Collaborate with scientists

NASA has a page dedicated to their Citizen Science Projects where you can volunteer to help make scientific discoveries, like mapping bird diversity, cloud gazing, tracing patches of kelp, or identifying celestial objects in search of Planet Nine. Currently, there are 30 projects open to anyone in the world, and most can be done with just a cellphone or laptop. — CD

Best geology overview

Often science documentaries these days are fluffy with wiz-bang graphics, slick re-enactments, endless repetitions, and fancy hosts, but Doug’s Geology Journal, a series on Amazon Prime, has none of those. Doug is a regular-guy geologist who draws his own graphics with pencil, and carries his own camera as he trudges across the landscape, giving the big picture of what has happened to shape the land, and how that shapes the culture on it. He gives you the right level of details, at the exact place on the land, which makes the big picture visible. He’s my favorite geology teacher. — KK

Retro anatomy book

I have a small collection of mid-century science books for young adults, and one of my favorites is The Human Body: What It Is and How It Works. Published in 1959, this beautifully illustrated book describes how our muscular, reproductive, digestive, endocrine, respiratory, skeletal, nervous, and circulatory systems work in simple English. Out of print but inexpensive used copies are easily found online. — MF

An app to teach you about the fourth dimension

This iPhone/iPad app does just one thing — it gives you a feel for the fourth dimension by moving from 0 dimensions to 4. I’ve had this jewel of an app on my phone for years and still open it from time to time. It’s a great companion to Flatland. — MF

10/19/25

Stay-put Earbuds/Borderless Embassy/Growing Nomad Hotspots

Nomadico issue #175

Earbuds That Won’t Fall Out

On about half the flights I’ve been on the past few years, I see a lonely lost earbud on a seat or the floor when deplaning. I lost one myself this year the very first trip after buying them. So before a very long journey down to Patagonia I bought these Soundcore Sport X20 ones with active noise cancellation and they performed like a dream. The “sport” part refers to the fact that they go over your ear and stay snug, plus they’re waterproof, but they’re far easier to fall asleep with than headphones. The sound is amazing, especially since their app lets you fine-tune the EQ instead of blasting you with more artificially boosted bass than you asked for like many do. The battery lasted 12 hours for me and didn’t run out, so a terrific value for the current under-$60 price.

The Borderless World Embassy

For those who are in the San Francisco Bay Area in the month of October, Safety Wing is operating a pop-up salon space is open to the public in downtown San Francisco, with free coffee and co-working space for digital nomads. Every Saturday this month they will host a series of talks by remarkable speakers on efforts around the world to create the portable infrastructure and policy regime to support a modern nomadic life and borderless travel. Free tickets can be had at the Safety Wing Embassy site so you can connect with people that should probably be in your tribe. (Via Kevin Kelly).

Is Buying Points Ever Worth It?

When the whole point of travel loyalty program points is to get something extra at no cost as a reward, outright paying for those points would seem to defeat the purpose. The airline and hotel points have a defined dollar value though, based on member experience of cashing in, so sometimes when they’re offering a big promotional bonus it could be worth doing. This month I’ve gotten purchase pitches from three hotel chains. One is offering a 100% bonus above a certain threshold and the Wyndham Hotels one of +90% is intriguing because their program only has 3 tiers for redemptions. So it’s easy to do the math and figure out that you could get a $300 or $400 hotel night for $150, or you can “top off” your account to hit the redemption level for an upcoming getaway. Here are examples from AwardWallet.

Nomad Work Hubs on the Rise

Which destinations are getting more working nomads recently? This report is compiled from data based on Nomads.com club member check-ins and there are a few other statistic problems, like the year-to-year spikes/declines being averaged out. Plus percentages hide that some started at a very low base level (hello Paraguay!) Take out the volatile examples though and there’s clearly a steady uptick in Da Nang, Tirana, Hanoi, Taipei, Melbourne, Chiang Mai (still?!), and a whole lot of cities in Japan.

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A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

10/16/25

What’s in my NOW? — Alison Qiu

issue #226

Alison is a software engineer currently based in Los Angeles, California. Outside of work, she enjoys, hiking, puzzles, reading, podcasts, and learning about random facts. You can find her on Instagram @alisonqiu4 and on Goodreads.

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PHYSICAL

• Single to-go drink mix: I hate drinking plain water, so I was so excited when I found that for the cost of 1 store bought drink, I can make 10 bottles of beverages using these powders. They’re not only cheaper but more convenient than bottled flavored drinks. Most importantly, there are so many flavors and brands to choose from and I’ve found some surprisingly good flavors (including Skittles and Starburst)!
• Mini Stair Stepper (with Resistance Bands) for at Home workouts: As someone who works from home with a standing desk, I often get tired standing, so I love that this lets me get in extra exercise and move my leg a little bit while standing! Compared to a walking treadmill, it takes up less space and is much cheaper (the one I got was ~$50).
• DIY Miniature House Kit for Adults: This is a great date night activity if you and your partner or friend enjoy DIY projects! When I feel stressed from work, I take a few minutes to work on it. Building it is easier than I expected and more enjoyable than puzzles. When I’m done, I display it in my home, and as my collection builds up over time, I feel accomplished every time I look at them.

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DIGITAL

• Nothing Much Happens Podcast: This podcast helps me fall asleep when I have a lot on my mind or I simply feel too awake. Her writing is beautiful and her voice is soothing. You don’t have to pay attention to every sentence to follow the story (which is what happens when I’m half asleep), but when I do listen here and there, her words help me imagine myself in a different environment, whether a rainy garden or a cozy house in the woods. In that calming state, I usually fall asleep before the episode ends.
• Sonia: AI Voice Therapy: Not sure if there’s an Android app, but I found this free app on my iPhone and I’ve been using it as my therapist to talk through things I have on my mind or secrets I don’t feel comfortable sharing in person. The AI voice sounds compassionate and human-like and you almost can’t tell it’s an AI. I find it works almost as well as a real therapist for helping me talk through problems or learn more about myself. Sometimes it’s also nice to have a non-judgmental listener to share secrets with.

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INVISIBLE

Everyone has something to teach you. Learn from whomever you can.

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10/15/25

Donabe / We Stand on Guard

Issue No. 88

DONABE – HOT POT COOKING WITH A JAPANESE FLAVOR

Donabe: Classic and Modern Japanese Clay Pot Cooking
by Naoko Takei Moore and Kyle Connaughton
Ten Speed Press
2015, 328 pages, 9.4 x 9.4 x 1.1 inches

Buy on Amazon

Donabe (doh-nah-bei) is Japanese for clay pot. It is traditional Japanese earthen cookware and its popularity has waxed and waned with the centuries. Today donabe cooking is a family (and friends) activity, bringing people closer together with communal dining. The book features traditional as well as modern donabe recipes created by the authors and takes readers through the history, manufacture and culture of the donabe.

The authors Takei-Moore and Connaughton create an intimate communal experience with the narrative and sharing of stories. Each recipe begins with a bit of an anecdote, such as “I’ve been making this dish for years, and it’s also one of the most popular rice dishes in my cooking class.” Then the instructions follow with tips and reminders, and include serving suggestions. We can almost hear Ms. Takei-Moore gently instructing her students, “Using a paring knife, score the skin of the duck breast … Be careful not to penetrate the meat.”

Aspiring donabe chefs need not think they have to acquire many different donabe (although that might be fun!). The authors encourage experimentation and provide instructions for using a classic donabe or even a dutch oven if you do not have the type of donabe specified. The book itself is a delightfully sumptuous eyeful with beautiful photographs of different donabe, ingredients and finished dishes. Sturdily constructed with heavy glossy pages that are sewn in, the book falls open flat just like you’d want a cook book to.

Donabe is delightful reading and the recipes are authentic, delicious and most are not complicated or difficult for the beginner to make. I loved reading and leafing through the book, trying out the recipes and extending my knowledge of “hot pot” cooking with a Japanese flavor. Interestingly enough, until I read the book, I had not heard of shime – a recipe that uses the remaining broth of the donabe recipe if it is a soup or stew to create an end-of-the-meal dish. Don’t just drink up the broth, create yet another course! – Carolyn Koh

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THE US SICS ITS ROBOT DRONE ARMY ON CANADA’S WATER SUPPLY IN WE STAND ON GUARD

We Stand on Guard
by Brian K. Vaughan (author), Steve Skroce (artist) and Matt Hollingsworth (artist)
Image Comics
2016, 160 pages, 7.3 x 11.1 x 0.6 inches (hardcover)

Buy on Amazon

You know those cheeky jokes about the United States invading Canada? No one is laughing in Brian K. Vaughn’s We Stand on Guard, an extremely tense, often brutal, military sci-fi thriller with an obvious political point to make.

Some 100 years in the future, an allegedly Canadian drone strike on the White House destroys it, killing the president. The US responds with everything it’s got while Canada screams false flag attack, an excuse for the US to come after Canada’s precious water resources (which, surprise, the US is plumb out of). The US deploys its immense drone arsenals, including giant, stompy mecha robots, and “hoser ships,” aerial tankers that fly over Canada sucking up all of her water. The story in the book revolves around a group of Canadian guerilla fighters trying to repel the US occupation.

While the subject matter is intense and the pacing of the book rarely lets you catch your breath, there is levity, too. There are plenty of insider Canadian jokes, a character from Quebec whose French dialog is never translated, and an ongoing bit about Superman having Canadian roots (he was co-created by Canadian artist Joseph Shuster). And while there is plenty of action, with everything from skirmish combat to giant, all-out battlefield hellfire, this is a very dialog-driven book and a book that is chalk full of interesting speculative tech and a believable near-future world.

A country being occupied by a vastly superior high-tech military, with questionable evidence to justify its actions, and irresistable natural resources that just happen to be sorely needed by the invaders… Hmmm, where have we heard this story before? Having the enemy be Canada, not Iraq, definitely changes the way that you relate to the guerillas and your shifting allegences to who the “good guys” actually are. This hardcover edition, collecting the first six issues of the series, is beautifully produced. Besides the series, there is a sketchbook in the back showing dozens of artist Steve Skroche’s sketches and pre-colored panels. – Gareth Branwyn

BTW: I found that this book had a lot of thematic and stylistic similarities, as well as a similar level of white-knuckled ferocity, to Letter 44. If you enjoyed that series, you’ll probably want to check out We Stand on Guard.

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Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

10/14/25

What’s in my NOW? — Alison Qiu